Five lessons from Primary Day

Gov. Andrew Cuomo won the Democratic primary Tuesday night, but it wasn’t the convincing victory he likely hoped for and he showed weaknesses in large swaths of New York.

Here's five takeaways from his victory and the other primary results:

Yes, Cuomo lost nearly half of NY counties, but he won the major population centers

Cuomo won 62 percent to 34 percent against liberal foe Zephyr Teachout. But the Fordham University law professor fared better than expected and won 30 upstate counties, including the mid-Hudson Valley, Albany area and Mohawk Valley. She did it without running a statewide ad and was aided by low turnout: Less than 10 percent of enrolled Democrats.

But Cuomo won easily in the state's most populous counties: Erie and Monroe counties, the two largest counties upstate; New York City, even though Teachout's base is believed to be there; and in the battleground New York City suburbs.

The influence of unions, fracking foes and parents

Cuomo has angered all three groups, and it showed.

Teachout won in areas that are anti-hydrofracking, such as the Catskills, and pro-union, particularly the Albany area with its large, unionized state workforce. Cuomo has clashed with unions over contracts since he took office in 2011, and none of them endorsed him, while the Public Employees Federation, the second largest in the state, backed Teachout.

Experts said today that Teachout may have also gained protest votes against Cuomo for his support of tougher gun-control laws -- which Teachout also supports. That may have been the case in parts of the Southern Tier, Mohawk Valley and Finger Lakes.

Cuomo may not have the same trouble in November: GOP candidate Rob Astorino supports hydrofracking, has called for stricter government spending and is pro-life in a state with twice as many enrolled Democrats than Republicans. But he's also called for a repeal of the Common Core testing standards in schools -- which could help him with parents -- and he's big on opposing the SAFE Act, which will help him with gun owners.

Cuomo's base needs a boost

Jeff Pollock, Cuomo’s pollster, said on "The Capitol Pressroom" the results were largely the function of low turnout and anti-incumbent sentiment nationally. But he recognized Cuomo needs to work to secure support across the state in advance of the Nov. 4 election.

Zephyr Teachout

"He is the winner, but I don't think he will just say 'I won' and march on," Tompkins County Democratic Chairwoman Irene Stein said. "I think he will listen very carefully to what people have said in this vote and make very deliberate decisions in relation to it."

Teachout's future

Maybe she won't become a household name -- even with her unique one. But Teachout's done something no other primary challenger in New York has ever done: She did the best against an incumbent governor since primaries in New York started in 1970, the New York Times said.

“I would have loved to win, but I also ran to sort of break up this culture of fear that sort of pervaded New York politics,” she told Gannett's Albany Bureau today.

Teachout said she's not ready to say whether she'll now endorse Cuomo in November. But if she stays active -- which she suggested she could -- she could influence voters, particularly down ballot where the Working Families Party and Independence Party have endorsed Cuomo and will rely on him to get them 50,000 votes each to stay on the ballot in four years.

State of flux for Legislature

If politicians were looking for clarity from the primaries on the future control of the state Senate, they left with more uncertainty.

Sen. Mark Grisanti, R-Buffalo, lost his primary bid, putting that seat in flux and giving Senate Republicans one more seat to deal with in November as they try to win a majority. Sen. Michael Gianaris, D-Queens, today was talking up winning the seat.

Yorktown Councilman Terrence Murphy won a GOP primary for a Senate seat that stretches across Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties. Now he'll face Democrat Justin Wagner in a seat being vacated by Sen. Greg Ball, who narrowly beat Wagner two years ago.

Also, two of three indicted senators won their primaries: Sen. John Sampson, D-Brooklyn, and Sen. Thomas Libous, R-Binghamton. The third, Sen. Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, lost.

But if either Sampson or Libous were to be convicted of a felony, they would leave an open seat, leaving the closely divided Senate in even more flux.